Soviet Union
Unlike the lands of capitalist imperialists, taxed to death by their games of poison and darkness, the Soviet Union is a world of light. A world where all men for once are created equal. A world where men are released from the necessity arising from artificial scarcity. A world where the fragile flame of humanity may, nurtured by its keepers, grow hot enough to burn the shackles of obscurantism and domination that have kept the rest of the world in darkness for so long. Yet, Mother Russia will always find herself surrounded by foreigners and enemies within, all eager to extinguish that guiding light with the darkness of their own greed and envy. That must not come to pass! Gameplay As an all-rounder in things, the USSR's units are highly superior in almost all tactical areas but the main focus of the Soviet war machine however is its armour: although as good as the French armour, the Soviets enjoy several technological and cost advantages, making them second to none save Germany - although it should be noted that German tanks and aircraft often are costly. The Russian propensity for oil production is one that will help in proliferation of these weapons on the field. The upgrade time for Russia's units is very fast, especially so for armour. Thus, any fool who would want to challenge the initially inferior tanks of the Soviet Union might want to think twice - it would not do well to go in, expecting to face meanly-armed tankettes and lowly light tanks, only to face an armoured fist of epic proprotions. While Soviet aviation is fairly variegated and reliable, the same however cannot be said for its navy. In a world of slow-building and costly naval units (in Age of Darkness all naval units with the exception of light attack craft have all their costs and other attributes doubled) the Soviet navy can only be best described as difficult to shift. The most common units in the Soviet arsenal are guard ships (which are upgrades of both the destroyer and the cruiser) as well as the gems of its surface fleet — the Soyuz, a cheaper but slower-building capital ship and the Kirov, which also has a cheaper initial cost followed by an exorbitant metal ramp cost. On water maps, the Soviet fleet may be at a disadvantage if faced with the other powers, especially the Italian, American, Dutch, British, German and Italian warfleets, which can amass naval superiority much faster than anyone else. Notesms:Kesatuan Republik Sosialis Soviet Russia has two capitals: Moscow, and the Urals. Russia has three leaders: *First in place is Josef Stalin, the initial leader. *If the Allies (somehow) occupy Russia, a new leader is elected to replace Stalin, this being Gavril' Constantinovich Romanov. *If Russia is occupied by a Communist Argentina or even China, the leader who takes over Stalin is Lavrenty Beria. In the case of Fascist Argentina, Japan, Germany or Italy, Russia will not be occupied, but will be instead annexed for "Lebensraum". The Soviet AI isn't really aggressive towards other nations, and prefers to create vassal states as opposed to destroying them completely, with the exception of two nations: Finland and the Oslo Group. It however becomes aggressive against all other nations except those which were aligned to it on two thresholds: both Spain and France become communist. In which case, the Soviets will become sufficiently emboldened enough to attack all other European nations with an eye towards occupying all of them. At the same time, an alliance with the Soviet Union is the most profitable thing anyone can do, but nations not aligned to communism will discover that communist ideas will begin to result in unrest - this builds up first in areas with a fortification level of 1, and later on by the end of the game areas with a fortification level of 4. CtW objectives In addition to controlling your initial territories, *Outlast Nazi Germany and Italy (they must be occupied or destroyed) *Britain must be forced to let go of India before the Atomic Era, either by destroying Britain or occupying all Indian territories. *Control Central Europe, Eurasia, Middle East. Notes The most powerful faction of Age of Darkness, the Soviet Union has several advantages which other nations don't have. The first is that like the USA, China, and Britain, it has more than one starting army, thanks to its two capitals at Moscow and Sverdlovsk. The second is that unlike the British or the Americans, the territory of the Soviet Union is a single contiguous mass, meaning that if armies are required, you will be able to bring them to the front fairly quickly. Finally, it doesn't have a broad front that faces many potential rivals, unlike America's exposure to Japan or Britain's exposure to Italy and Germany. Finally, the Soviet Union also is in possession of a vast amount of natural resources, especially in its eastern lands. But then, if so, what's stopping you from conquering the world then? The first problem is that tribute is a problem initially, where the cost to declare war is initially set at 800 tribute. Although you have vast resources, you might be forced to play a wait-and-see game. This is especially so since a lot of parts of Russia aren't very well-developed, least of all your Eurasian lands - Russia's industry is all focussed in Central Europe, centred around Leningrad, Moscow and Kharkov. There are several ways of earning tribute - either by remaining at peace for a long time, or allying with as many nations as possible. Unlike other nations, the USSR have a different progression: see the page titled Tribute for the exact formula. However, the least developed areas of your empire will begin to rebel from Turn 14 onwards if you remain in an alliance with the Soviets, so there are three ways to go about this - #Ally early with the Soviet Union, and build up everything to a territorial strength of 2 or more at all times, especially before you attack #Another method is to build up areas to territorial level of 3 or higher before allying. #The third is to align yourself with Communism. France, Argentina and Iraq can choose this course of action during the Domination campaign. Only the Iraqis, Argentina and France do not suffer from this issue as long as they are fully aligned with the Comintern. Other nations that can be aligned to the Soviets also include India, Spain, and China. Territories covered Eurasia *Chelyabinsk *Sverdlovsk *Novossibirsk *North Sakhalin *Uzbekistan *Kirghizstan *Tajikistan *Turkmenistan *Astana *Yakutsk *Kamchatka *Krasnoyask *Yerevan *Tiflis *Baku Central Europe *Moscow *Leningrad *Kharkov *Kiev *Odessa *Sebastopol *Minsk *Stalingrad Unique buildings Propaganda Centre - replaces the House of worship once Collectivisation is researched Unique units Infantry *Mounted infantry: Red Army Cossacks *Rifle: RKKA infantry 1 *Machine guns: Maxim 1-3 => Goryunov 4-6 *SMG: AVS-36 Automatchik 3-6 *Flamethrower *Special forces: Marine Infantry Tanks *Light tanks: FT-17^ 1-2 => T-26 3-5 (consumed by T34) *Tankettes: T-27 2-4 => T-60 5 => T-70 6 (these 2 are constructed from the armoury, munitions plant or foundry, not HEF) *Med tanks: BT-7 3-4 => T-34# 5-6 *Heavy tank: Mk VIII Liberty^ 1-2 => T-28 consumed by T-34, KV-1 5 => IS-2 6 Artillery Tank destroyer: *SU-100 requires a T-28 to be researched => ISU 152 (heavy all-purpose SPG) Cannons: *Schneider 1-2 => M1930 Light artillery 3-4 => ZiS-3 5-6 Other vehicles *BA-27# 2-3 => BA-10 4-5 => BA-64 6 *Flame tank: T-26 (Kht130) 4, T-34, KV chassis *Katyusha 4 *Special: KV-2 mortar tank (requires KV-2, and a mortar tech) *Tachanka (shared with Poland; a mounted machine gunner - cheap, doesn't cost oil but is not armoured; converts to BA-27 later on) 1# *SPAD: T60 AA => ZSU37 Special units *Armed caravan^ *Armed merchant^ *Armed supply truck/Halftrack^ *Narkom (special unit trained from Temple or Propaganda Centre) - replaces generals for Russia' *GRU Operative (special unit trained from Temple or Propaganda Centre) - costs knowledge, not wealth, and is also armed with a melee attack. Aircraft *Fighters: I16 3 (Russia can't receive biplane) => YaK1 4 => YaK9 5-6 *Bombers: Tupolev SB 3 => IL-4 4-6 *Ground attack: Po2 2-3 => IL-2 4-6 Naval *Capital ship: Soyuz-class battleship *Battle cruiser: Kirov *Destroyer/cruiser: Guard ship National bonuses The Rodina: *Start with State Property researched, but cannot research Universal Suffrage or Corporatism. *Enemies take double attrition damage from "Russian Winter" *Attrition research upgrades received for free *National Border recieve +1 bonus per Civic Research *Enhanced oil production *Cavalry does +25% damage to enemy supply and artillery units *Plunder from Russian buildings goes back to the owner and not the enemy Unit bonuses *Infantry have -66% research time *Except for the BT-7 and the T-27, tanks, specialist armoured vehicles and non-bomber aircraft have lower base research time. *T-34 and M4 Sherman are marked for cost effectiveness See also *Spain Category:Major powers